Transporting a Travel Bug by MAIL!!!

[+Pure Luck]

I'm just curious about what type of response I will get. If a travel bug is in a race for prizes, and the rules state you can attach anything you want to expidite the trip. Does it need to be continuously transported by Geocachers, or would it be acceptable to provide the big hops by mail or courier? As long as the bug's mileage is accurate, and the bug actually gets logged into real caches.

 

I'm testing the theory in a race, and would like some feedback on if this is good planning, or cheating.

 

The Race;

http://members.shaw.ca/jcoutu1/index.html

 

My bug;

http://www.geocaching.com/track/track_detail.asp?ID=3928

[white_owl]

I don't like this idea at all!

 

When I conceived the idea of the race, it was intended to have the bugs moving from one cacher to another via conventional transportation (i.e. by physically hopping to the next cache). We (the race committee) had discussed this at one point and we had agreed that mailing wasn't to be allowed but somehow, with everything else that we had to think of, this point was missed in the final draft of the rules.

 

Anyone can mail a bug. Granted, it requires some planning but that isn't the intent of the race or Travel Bugs in general.

 

I understand that Pure Luck's and Junglehair's bugs ended up state side but that's part of the uncertainty of the race and thus part of the fun.

 

My own bug was picked up in Calgary and was headed for Quebec but ended up being placed in Massachusetts instead. I thought that this move had knocked me out of the race but I got an e-mail today from Painted1 who said "will be heading to Northern Vermont next week. I may even take a jaunt into Quebec so he's well on his way",

 

I'm not down for the count yet.

 

Again, I strongly state that I am very much against this concept.

 

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Anyone can go to a Tupperware party but it takes a special skill to hunt plastic containers in the wild.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Mailing bugs is cheating, IMHO

 

Took sun from sky, left world in eternal darkness

[+MtnLion]

I think you're pretty sure this is cheating, otherwise you'd've just done it.

 

I mean, I don't see anything in the race rules you linked specifically saying it's cheating, but certainly the whole point of a travel bug is to pass from cacher to cacher through caches.

 

I think perhaps you are in the wrong frame of mind. You would surely upset many people if you won prizes or glory by stepping outside the intent of the game in this way. It would be a hollow worthless victory anyway...

[+Pure Luck]

Well, I would agree that with a normal travel bug the intent is to have it travel cache to cache. But in this case, it is in a race, where they have explicitly stated "TB's may have any other attachments that racers feel will improve their chances." Doesn't that open it up to any mode of transport. If one geocacher mails the bug to another Geocacher, who then drops it in a cache to be found. All you are doing is eliminating the need for a plane ticket. (Just to stir the discussion.) Why does it have to be left to fate? Is this any worse than the cachers who picked up other competitors bugs at the start, and then "lost them".

[boreal jeff & sons]

It is assumed travel bugs move by being picked up at a cache by a Geocacher and moved to the next cache in the person of that same Geocacher. You shouldn't have to state every assumption in the rules.

 

My vote is to not allow this.

 

How do they get moose to cross at those yellow road signs?

 

[This message was edited by boreal jeff & sons on August 19, 2003 at 10:36 AM.]

[white_owl]

quote:

---

where they have explicitly stated "TB's may have any other attachments that racers feel will improve their chances." Doesn't that open it up to any mode of transport

---

 

This was specifically intended to mean a tag that would inform other cachers as to the intent of the bug. A perfect example of this is your card showing each provincial flag. (Great thinking there; my hat off to you for that peice of foresight )

 

But to interpret this to mean a mailing envelope is to bend the rules around 359 degrees.

 

The basic purpose of any travel bug is to pass from cacher 1 to cache A; then from cache A to cacher 2 into cache B and so on.

 

By mailing the bug, you are forgoing the caches and going from cacher 1 to cacher 2 without it being placed in caches along the way.

 

I still feel VERY STRONGLY that mailing the bug is going against the spirit and intent of the race and merely testing the reliability of the postal system.

 

This is NOT what is at the heart of the race.

 

White Owl

 

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Anyone can go to a Tupperware party but it takes a special skill to hunt plastic containers in the wild.

[+Pure Luck]

For the sake of reducing the stress level, I have agreed to run the bug outside of the race. (Equivalent to my original offer to run it in an "exhibition class".)

[+Pure Luck]

Sorry, forgot to include the original quote that I had based my plan on.

 

Q. What is a Travel Bug?

 

A. Simply put, a Travel Bug is a new form of hitchhiker you can track on Geocaching.com. A hitchhiker is basically an item that is carried from cache to cache (or person to person) and you can follow its progress online.

 

By Person to Person, I had interpretted that as cacher to cacher, and had not felt that face to face contact was required.

 

My apologies to all of you who felt I was going outside of the unwritten rules.

[Dinoprophet]

For TBs in general, I think it's fine, as long as the owner doesn't care. Someone once mailed me their own bug because I was going to be vacationing near its goal. Someone else mailed me one of my bugs after a competition it was involved in had ended, so I could start it with a new goal. If the owner doesn't care, why should anyone else?

 

Now, if you're talking about a specific TB race/competition, that's obviously an issue for the rules of the competition. I can't imagine a TB race where mailing would be a reasonable move, unwritten or not. It's just common sense.

 

I *have* been involved in a TB game where mailing was acceptable. TBs that were specifically part of the game acted as soldiers who claimed caches for their team. They could be mailed, handed off, whatever. It was kind of a disaster in the end, but two of my bugs from the game have continued to carry their game personae.

 

Well the mountain was so beautiful that this guy built a mall and a pizza shack

Yeah he built an ugly city because he wanted the mountain to love him back -- Dar Williams

[Eeyore and Shadow]

I think interpretation of the rules of a race should be made by the person officiating the race. They are the ones that make the rules and have the power to disqualify anyoen they feel has cheated.

 

Eeyore

 

I am moving along!

[+Mr & Mrs Hedgehog]

Speaking as someone who has a TB in this race, who is still stuck on the starting line, then I would be totally against mailing one of the race competitors.